Visual Studio Code task to start the Android Emulator (for React Native development)

tasks.json

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "reveal": "silent",
    "tasks": [{
        "taskName": "Start Android Emulator",
        "type": "shell",
        "isBackground": true,
        "command": "~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/emulator",
        "args": [
            "-avd",
            "[AVD_NAME]",
            ">",
            "/dev/null",
            "2>&1",
            "&"
        ],
        "problemMatcher": [],
        "presentation": {
            "reveal": "never"
        }
    }]
}

Create this task as a preLaunchTask for the launch.json so the Android emulator is started before react native is started

Hi @wbroek,

thanks for sharing this, I was searching for something like this.
But there is a problem which is discussed here link.
After 10 seconds I get the warning "The specified task cannot be tracked".

Seems like vscode is waiting for an answer to check if the preLaunchTask was startet successfully.
I could choose "Debug anyway" but doing this every build is annoying!

Did you faced this problem? Regards

I am trying to avoid this error by removing "isBackground": true from the task. Then using a shell script which finishes after loading the emulator, but although detaching the process from the terminal using &, nohup or disown, the emulator closes when vscode finishes the prelaunch task.
Running the script in a terminal works as expected, with ctrl + c oder closing the terminal the emulator stays open.

Here is my script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# start emulator as headless process
# nohup emulator @Nexus_5X_API_28 -no-boot-anim & disown

# wait for emulator to be started
adb wait-for-device & disown

# wait for android to be booted
while [ "`adb shell getprop sys.boot_completed | tr -d '\r' `" != "1" ] ; do sleep 1; done